Introduction: Understanding factors associated with increased use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is critical to implementing cessation interventions for low-income individuals yet the factors associated with NRT use among low-income smokers are poorly understood.

Aims: Assess factors associated with NRT use among low-income public housing residents.

Methods: ‘Kick it for Good’ was a randomised smoking cessation intervention study conducted among residents of public housing sites in Boston, MA. Secondary, cross-sectional analyses were conducted on smokers from a community-based intervention cessation intervention who reported making a quit attempt and use of NRT in the past 12 months (n = 234).

Results: Among smokers who made a quit attempt in the past year, 29% reported using NRT. Black (prevalence ratio, PR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.38–0.71) and Hispanic (PR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.31–0.88) participants were less likely to report use of NRT compared with Whites. The prevalence of recent NRT use was greatest among those both asking for and receiving provider advice (PR = 1.90, 95% CI: 0.96–3.78).

Conclusions: Minority race and ethnicity and low provider engagement on NRT use were associated with lower NRT use. Providing barrier-free access to NRT and facilitating provider engagement with smokers regarding NRT use can increase NRT use among low-income populations.

This paper presents a radionuclide migration model that incorporates bentonite extrusion. The model consists of two parts: one for movement of water and bentonite in a planar fracture and the other for radionuclide transport by taking into account advection, diffusion, and sorption with moving bentonite particles. Numerical results indicate that strongly sorbing radionuclides are contained completely within the region of bentonite extrusion. This observation suggests importance of the region in the vicinity of buffer/rock interface in terms of impact on radionuclide release to surrounding host rock.

In this article, we briefly recall the physical mechanisms at the origin of the Barkhausen effect in ferromagnetic mediums and the thermoelectric power in conductor metals. We then present, for each of these phenomena, the measurement principles and their sensitivity to the microstructural state, notably in the case of precipitation phenomena and in the ones linked to plastic deformation. Finally, in the case of the formation of precipitates in an iron-based alloy, we show the complementarity of both techniques.

A family of low melting temperature tin fluorophosphate glasses that can incorporate certain organic compounds has been under investigation. The glasses are comprised principally of SnF2, SnO, and P2O5; the addition of small amounts (< 5%) of Pb improves chemical durability. These materials are dense, reasonably water durable, and easily fabricated. Photoluminescence properties of glasses doped with pyrene, POPOP, stilbene 420 and several other organic molecules were studied. All of the doped glasses exhibited intense photoluminescence. Pyrene doped glass was found to have monomer-triplet and dimer-excimer pyrene species present, depending on the dopant concentration. Scintillation properties of the glasses were also investigated. Generally a very fast (~1 ns or less) but weak luminescence was observed. Results of these studies suggest that higher concentrations of the dyes must be incorporated into the glass and more efficient energy transfer from the glass host to the organic fluor must be attained for these materials to be useful as fast scintillators.

It has been shown that each individual has a considerable day-to-day variation (intra-individual variation) in his or her level of food consumption. A large intra-individual variation has adverse effects on the reliability of research studies. The effect of the intra-individual variation can be minimized by taking food intake records over several days. An increase in the number of days entails higher costs, and this could limit the practicability of the study. In the recent literature on the methodology of dietary surveys, there is a growing interest in the estimation of the number of days required to conduct a reliable dietary survey. Recent developments in statistical theory allow the problem of large intra-individual variability to be overcome. These new statistical techniques require knowledge of the intra- and inter-individual variability and the appropriate adjustment of the statistical results. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the number of days of recorded intake required to obtain an estimate of the components of variance (the inter-individual and the intra-individual variability) focusing on foods rather than nutrients.

A convenient method of measuring the nonlinear optical properties of molecular compounds is described. The method involves measuring the quadratic electro-optical coefficient of a polymer composite containing a variable concentration of the candidate NLO material. The X(3) (ω) value obtained by this low-frequency Kerr measurement, after local-field corrections, can be compared to the nonresonant third-order susceptibility measured by degenerate-four-wave-mixing technique on selective samples. We find that the choice of the polymer matrix dictates the contribution of second-order susceptibility to the Kerr coefficient. Therefore, our method can also be extended to the measurement of second-order susceptibility, analogous to the technique of field-induced second-harmonic-generation.

Recent experiments have proved the efficiency of T.E.P. measurements in phase transformation studies. The main features of the technique are presented and two particular examples of application are given (influence of plastic deformation on short range ordering (S.R.O.) and study of dissolution of the equilibrium Θ phase in Al-Cu alloys).

Since the first studies [1] only very few attempts have been made to use thermoelectrical power measurements (T.E.P.) to characterize the evolution of an alloy during phase transformation. However, in spite of the complexity of the theoretical interpretations, T.E.P. measurements can give valuable informations on the microstructure of the material, sometimes with more easiness or more precision than with other techniques or even informations which would be impossible to obtain by another way.